A Confused Newbie Needs Help to Get Started

[yonirots]

Hi guys,
My name is Yoni and I'm totally new to all of this, zero experience.
I want to start making AMV'S for fun and not for fame or something, but in everything I do I put 100% effort, so I do want to achieve nice results by hard work, although I don't plan to be a master editor like you guys.
I don't want to be too sensitive and to write a long post, but I do want to say that the reason I would like to make AMV'S is because they are so awesome... Well, that also, but not because of that.
My vision is to use AMV as a tool to show my prespective of animes/characters, as a disabled person which was born disabled, and combine my love for animes with my will to share tiny pieces of my views of life.
So after this prologue (if you read it all you're super awesome), I need your help to get started.
*My softwares are SV 12 & Any Video Converter.

I read the AMV 101 guide and threads in the forum, but I'm very confused about a few things:
1. I want to work with Naruto episodes that I've downloaded, but since none of them work in SV I have to convert them to mpeg-2 (with Any Video Converter), right? But I read here that AVI loseless is much better, but if the video is 8 bits then I can just convert/recontain it with Any Video Converter (see the confusion?)... So how do I know what to do? And if a) I need AVI loseless, how to do it? b) I don't need AVI loseles, what bit rate, fps, size and etc' to put when converting?

2. What else do I need to start (I didn't understand if the amv pack is a must and how to use it)?

3. How do you work on a project which includes many episodes? What's your method?

4. Where do you find songs/bands which are less mainstream? Is there a magic way, website or... no?

I think that sums up everything (yes! it ends!).

You can add me on Skype if you really want to since typing isn't that easy for me, or just comment here and I'll provide any info you need, just be patient.

Thanks for reading!
Yoni

[l33tmeatwad]

I read the AMV 101 guide and threads in the forum, but I'm very confused about a few things:
1. I want to work with Naruto episodes that I've downloaded, but since none of them work in SV I have to convert them to mpeg-2 (with Any Video Converter), right? But I read here that AVI loseless is much better, but if the video is 8 bits then I can just convert/recontain it with Any Video Converter (see the confusion?)... So how do I know what to do? And if a) I need AVI loseless, how to do it? b) I don't need AVI loseles, what bit rate, fps, size and etc' to put when converting?

2. What else do I need to start (I didn't understand if the amv pack is a must and how to use it)?

To convert to lossless AVI you can either use AviSynth, which uses scripting and is a bit more complex, or you can use VirtualDub with the FFMPEG Input Plugin. The recontainering method requires you to use a tool, such as FFmpegYAG, to move the video information from whatever container it is in (I assume MKV) and place it in another container, such as MP4. If the video is not 8bit, you will need to convert to AVI and the easiest way to find that out is to simply open the file in FFmpegYAG and it will say 8bit or 10bit in the video section.

AMVpack is basically a collection of all the tools you need to get started with the video conversion process. The specific section of the AMV 101 guides (I assume you were reading those) that you would want to refer to is this one: Handling MKV & MP4 Files. The basic conversion or recontainering methods are probably the easiest for new people, so you would want to follow sections A or C in that particular guide.

3. How do you work on a project which includes many episodes? What's your method?

There is no real easy way to work with a show that has a ton of episodes. If you know of a particular scene you want to use, you may be able to find out what episode it is in via Google, but aside from that it just takes a lot of time.

4. Where do you find songs/bands which are less mainstream? Is there a magic way, website or... no?

I'm not really sure of any particular place, but it would mostly just be a lot of time researching and asking other people. Non-mainstream stuff can be much harder to find.

[yonirots]

To convert to lossless AVI you can either use AviSynth, which uses scripting and is a bit more complex, or you can use VirtualDub with the FFMPEG Input Plugin. The recontainering method requires you to use a tool, such as FFmpegYAG, to move the video information from whatever container it is in (I assume MKV) and place it in another container, such as MP4. If the video is not 8bit, you will need to convert to AVI and the easiest way to find that out is to simply open the file in FFmpegYAG and it will say 8bit or 10bit in the video section.

AMVpack is basically a collection of all the tools you need to get started with the video conversion process. The specific section of the AMV 101 guides (I assume you were reading those) that you would want to refer to is this one: Handling MKV & MP4 Files. The basic conversion or recontainering methods are probably the easiest for new people, so you would want to follow sections A or C in that particular guide.

First of all, thank you very much, I don't ever expect to get help, so thanks.
I'll recontain to mp4, as it seems easier and better for youtube uploading (?), but what do I do when I have not only mkv files but also AVI? Will it work?

I see the guide says "Rename file to video.mkv to avoid unicode characters in the file name causing problems", I'm sure it's a silly question, but what does it mean, that I need to copy each file and rename it video.mkv or avi one-by-one?

[l33tmeatwad]

To convert to lossless AVI you can either use AviSynth, which uses scripting and is a bit more complex, or you can use VirtualDub with the FFMPEG Input Plugin. The recontainering method requires you to use a tool, such as FFmpegYAG, to move the video information from whatever container it is in (I assume MKV) and place it in another container, such as MP4. If the video is not 8bit, you will need to convert to AVI and the easiest way to find that out is to simply open the file in FFmpegYAG and it will say 8bit or 10bit in the video section.

AMVpack is basically a collection of all the tools you need to get started with the video conversion process. The specific section of the AMV 101 guides (I assume you were reading those) that you would want to refer to is this one: Handling MKV & MP4 Files. The basic conversion or recontainering methods are probably the easiest for new people, so you would want to follow sections A or C in that particular guide.

First of all, thank you very much, I don't ever expect to get help, so thanks.
I'll recontain to mp4, as it seems easier and better for youtube uploading (?), but what do I do when I have not only mkv files but also AVI? Will it work?

I see the guide says "Rename file to video.mkv to avoid unicode characters in the file name causing problems", I'm sure it's a silly question, but what does it mean, that I need to copy each file and rename it video.mkv or avi one-by-one?

AVI files should be fine to work with, you can use both types when editing and it won't matter that they are different types. As for the renaming part, SOMETIMES unicode characters (like Japanese characters) can sometimes cause errors when processing things, so I usually tell people to make sure to rename so that files don't have them. As for "better for youtube uploading", the files you work with for editing do not matter as you will have to encode after editing anyways to have a file you can upload.

[yonirots]

Thanks, I'll try tonight.

[yonirots]

So FFmpegYAG works like a charm, but how can I change the output folder so it won't save in the same folder of the mkv file?
Google didn't help me with this...

[l33tmeatwad]

You have to manually type it in in the "File" text box next to "Format" when the file is selected.

[yonirots]

You have to manually type it in in the "File" text box next to "Format" when the file is selected.

I thought so, thank you sir!